'Memphis' hits O.C. at an appropriate moment

Nov. 7, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Bryan Fenkart as Huey in "Memphis" National Tour. This touring production of the 2010 Tony winner for best musical is blessed with outstanding leads, including Fenkart and Felicia Boswell, both of whom appeared in the Broadway production. PAUL KOLNIK

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Felicia Boswell as Felicia and Bryan Fenkart as Huey in "Memphis." There was something undeniably apropos about seeing “Memphis,” which examines a troubled chapter in America's history of racial relations, on the night Obama got re-elected. PAUL KOLNIK

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Felicia Boswell as Felicia and Bryan Fenkart as Huey in "Memphis." Fenkhart plays Huey, a happy-go-lucky Memphis kid with a burning love for the music of his Tennessee city's black community. PAUL KOLNIK

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Felicia Boswell as Felicia and Quentin Earl Darrington as Delray in "Memphis." Boswell is a convincing actress, but her strongest asset is her powerhouse voice, displayed gloriously in songs such as “Colored Woman” and “Someday.” PAUL KOLNIK

A scene from "Memphis." An early version of the musical was staged during the 2003-04 season at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass., and TheatreWorks in Mountain View. PAUL KOLNIK

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Though the plot of “Memphis” is loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips (1926-68), one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s, the character of Huey Calhoun isn't a perfect fictional counterpart. PAUL KOLNIK

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A reinvigorated version of “Memphis” was staged at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2008. Writer Joe DiPietro (“I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change”) and composer David Bryan, the keyboard player for Bon Jovi, had a chance to hone their work. The Tony-winning Broadway debut opened Oct. 19, 2009, and ended its run in August after 1,166 appearances. PAUL KOLNIK

Bryan Fenkart as Huey in "Memphis" National Tour. This touring production of the 2010 Tony winner for best musical is blessed with outstanding leads, including Fenkart and Felicia Boswell, both of whom appeared in the Broadway production.PAUL KOLNIK

Tuesday was election night and the outcome was undecided at curtain time, but Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Hall was surprisingly full for the first performance of "Memphis." There was plenty of iPhone peeking in the crowd before and even during the show (you know who you are).

But those who came were amply rewarded. This touring production of the 2010 Tony winner for best musical is blessed with outstanding leads, including Bryan Fenkart and Felicia Boswell, both of whom appeared in the Broadway production. While Joe DiPietro's writing veers occasionally into melodrama and moralizing, David Bryan's songs are some of the best blues- and rock-inspired show tunes anyone has penned in the last few years.

And there was something apropos about seeing "Memphis," which examines a troubled chapter in America's history of racial relations, on the night Obama got re-elected. The stirring ovation that the cast received at the beginning of the second act happened just minutes after the presidential contest was called.

Fenkart plays Huey, a happy-go-lucky Memphis kid with a burning love for the music of his Tennessee city's black community. He wanders into Delray's, a basement club in a part of town where white folks never go. Things are tense at first, but Huey wins everyone over with his enthusiasm for the music and his own high-energy gifts as a performer.

Huey immediately falls for Felicia, a singer and the sister of Delray, the club's owner. In 1950s Memphis, such an attraction isn't allowed, of course, but that doesn't stop Huey from doggedly pursuing the young woman.

Meanwhile, Huey's talents finally steer him into a career (his manic persona and ping-pong energy make him hilariously unsuccessful in a string of jobs). He sneaks into a radio studio and briefly spins some of the music he loves ("Everybody Wants to be Black on Saturday Night"). Mr. Simmons, the station owner, is irate about airing "race music" to his white audience, but he quickly changes his tune when the phones are inundated with calls from young listeners to play more of the same. Huey's career is born.

It's a lucky time for Huey. He even turns his secret illiteracy into an advantage when he improvises on a lame written ad for a local beer company. Huey transforms it into a hip minute of high-volume marketing and invents his signature nonsense phrase, "Hockadoo!" The beer flies off the shelves.

Unlike "Hairspray," "Memphis" treats its depiction of pre-Civil Rights era race relations realistically, and it's a more substantial and serious musical as a result. Huey rises high on the Memphis pop-culture totem pole, eventually landing a TV show, and Felicia's career takes off with his help, but their romance still leads to trouble. DiPietro is depicting history, not a fairy tale.

But the play's white supporting characters aren't all painted simplistically and unsympathetically. DiPietro wisely counterbalances scenes of white intransigence, ignorance and brutality with a character whose racism fades with cross-cultural experience: Huey's blunt-talking mother (Julie Johnson). Johnson sings one of the show's most electrifying songs, "Change Don't Come Easy," and she makes the moment her own.

Fans of the late Memphis disco jockey Dewey Phillips will recognize the inspiration for Huey, and some won't like the liberties DiPietro has taken. Phillips' struggles with alcohol and drugs are well-known and undoubtedly led to his early demise in 1968 at 42. Those demons are barely hinted at in DiPietro's script and Fenkart's mostly sunny portrayal.

But if you're not a music historian, those quibbles are immaterial. This long-developing musical, after years of tinkering, is solidly structured and wisely eschews neat and happy solutions for its characters.

The cast clearly relishes the characters and their songs.

Fenkart has Huey's irrepressible energy and naïve optimism nailed, and the character's second-act arc into life-weary middle age is nicely observed. He pairs well with Boswell as Felicia. Boswell is a persuasive actress, but her strongest asset is her powerhouse voice, displayed gloriously in songs such as "Colored Woman" and "Someday."

Some of DiPietro's supporting roles are well fleshed out, and the actors find nuance in their parts. Best among them is Horace V. Rogers as Delray, who like Huey's mom finds his own rocky path to tolerance.

Scenic designer David Gallo and choreographer Sergio Trujillo bring gritty period authenticity to the show, directed with assurance and subtlety by Christopher Ashley.

Tuesday's performance was also made special by the unexpected appearance of a student chorus from three Orange County high schools, who stood in the aisles during the final chorus of "Steal Your Rock 'n' Roll." It was a suitably celebratory way to end an evening that, thanks to a strange confluence with the electoral calendar, felt undeniably special.

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